America and American

[ANNE V. GILBERT]

Lynne:

> The point that DInIs makes about United States of Brazil, etc. is the
> reason that I usually get a bit frustrated with the claim that people from
> the US should not be referred to as 'Americans'.
>
> The closest similar example I can think of is South Africa/Africa, but
then
> you can distinguish between people from South Africa and Botswana or
> Lesotho as South Africans vs southern Africans.
>
> I suppose we could say people from the US are 'national Americans' and
> people from North/South America are 'continental Americans'.
>
> What are people doing with the epithet for people-from-Congo, now that
> there are two countries with that name?

Although I have some distant family connections in Canada, and a friend at
work who also has cross-border family connections(and can even sound
"CAnadian"  on occasion), I've never heard Canadians claim they were
"Americans" too.  My experience with this usage has been somewht different.
I have a bunch of relatives by marriage who are from Mexico, and sometimes,
if I refer to "America" or "Americans", I've been corrected(but oddly
enough, not by the people who were born in Mexico) with "well, they're
Americans too"   My resentment hackles begin to rise at this point, because
the Mexicans make no bones about their "distinctiveness"(which I don't
really per se, mind).  I think some people have a need to be "politically
correct" in their usage, so the term "American" *must* inculde those from
south of the border(and possibly Canadians as well), since they all live on
"American" continents.
Anne G